Buddhist Drama - Theatre

A C T I V I T I E S 렁 D R A M A

Theatre

William Shakespeare got it right with his: "All the world is a stage and we are but players - we strut our stuff - and then die" (or words to that effect). Using contrived or spontaneous (or a mixture) of stage situations can be a way of people exploring real-life situations in a relatively safe space; this principle has been developed as psychodrama. This is not the place to go into details of that path - there is a lot of material available on the subject elsewhere. The activities here are a variety of expressive, creative, performance, self exposing (as in internal!) suggestions and some can be used to explore various emotions - by discussion, sharing, etc. or they can be kept very light. The advantage of 'play acting' is it can provide an opportunity for people to behave in ways that they never would otherwise allow; a bit like being a little drunk without the alcohol - inhibitions are lowered and there is an 'excuse' for 'playing about.'

STATUES

Similar to sculptures in Just Fun except people form their own shapes. These can be suggested by the leader relative to a theme or, certainly to begin with, allow suggestions from the group. Start with mundane ideas - animal, mud wrestler, moss on a rock, etc and move to those that might hold more emotional content - pregnant woman, street beggar, person on death row, etc. The group could be halved and take turns at being both statues and reviewers. The statues must not be touched.

GROWING

Be a thing growing:
This could start with relatively static things: a tree alone, grass together, an insect - and move on to more active: birds, fish, a leaf in the wind, tigers, chickens, etc.
Experiment with being an animal waking up.

BALLOONS

This can be done in pairs - the balloon and the pump - or individually. The balloon is flat and limp on the floor, it is slowly filled up, bigger, and bigger and ... it can pop! it can be let go of whizzzzzzzzz (with appropriate sound effects). They can be tied and float about bumping into each other. They can get a leak and need a balloon doctor. They can be put in a big bag together. etc. etc. Balloons are cool!

A little skit that can be made much of or put together very quickly. You may think of similar stories that exemplify the same principle.

TOGETHER

As a group develop a story line as a script for a cooperation play. Getting a piano through the door into a small room?
The same process could be used for forgiveness. A family member killed by a car - (working towards) forgiving the driver. Or a simple mistake of someone taking anther's book, cake, etc. Moving from anger to forgiveness.

PICTURE ME

Models and photographers. The camera can be made as an activity from a cardboard box or, these days with digital cameras and videos, it could be for real. Try: monks and nuns at the time of the Buddha? The Buddha? Someone who has just won the lottery - lost their child?

METTA

Here are short skits on loving-kindness (metta).

WHAT DO U DO

General actions describing what you do when: it's cold, hot, war, angry, lonely, in the desert, etc.

THE MANNER

Similar to above but half the group know what the condition is - cold, hot, war, angry, lonely, in the desert, etc. - and the others must guess. They can ask questions which get a nod for yes or shake for no - actors are best silent, their bodies doing the talking.

FURNITURE

Build a room and furnish it using people. The scope of this depends on how many people there are. You can minimise the building of the room or have some people as interior decorators and some people as furniture testers. It could be a furniture showroom with sales people and customers.

PUPPETS

Almost anything can become a puppet - even another person (see Discovery). Performing through a puppet softens the sense of being a person - puppets can say almost anything; I could never say that! Make them, play with them, write scripts for them, improvise around a theme.

SKITS

A few short (silly?) stories that can be made into a little play:

Marking the Boat

Hell on Earth

The Hereafter

The Five Precepts - a not so silly

MUSICALS

There are four of these and they were written with the intention of casting, rehearsing, and performing all within the space of a week long family residential camp at Amaravati monastery - as well as fitting in with all the other activities. They are relatively simple and flexible although some may not like the slightly offbeat, wacky style - the kids seemed to. There is a brief explanation / précis with each download and some references to the song tunes. Unfortunately not all of these have been recorded so you may need to make something up. They all attempted to explore a specific Buddhist theme and to be fun. I would be very happy to correspond if you were thinking of trying to produce one - the PDF files are a bit patchy so you may need to anyway. DOWNLOADS